


Now The World Is Upside Down

by charliescastiel



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-09
Updated: 2014-06-09
Packaged: 2018-02-03 23:37:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1759775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charliescastiel/pseuds/charliescastiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Charlie read the Supernatural books, she may or may not have developed a tiny little crush on Jo Harvelle. Okay, a huge crush. This is what happens when she meets her for the first time. In real life. At the Men of Letter's bunker.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now The World Is Upside Down

**Author's Note:**

> au where everyone is alive (though jo was still injured during 5x10 but miraculously pulled through. amazing. they set the bomb on a timer, probably) and other canon events are less painful. set a few months after 8x20 pac-man fever and maybe even sacrifice, though sammy is around 90% fine.  
> title taken from "Falling Down" by Muse.  
> unbeta'd so my apologies for any mistakes. comments and criticisms are much appreciated.  
> this is the dumbest thing you'll ever read but if you like it i see the potential for multiple chapters. probably featuring destiel later on.

The small yellow car made it's way slowly down the off road that lead to the bunker, where Dean was stood leant against the Impala.

"Your highness." Dean said as she stepped out of the car.

"Handmaiden." Charlie replied, grinning from ear to ear as she slammed her car door and slunk her backpack over her shoulder.

She quickened her pace when Dean opened his arms and she threw her arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around her waist in return and nuzzled his nose into her hair.

What would have been an excruciatingly long drive from Michigan was aided by her new found love for audio books. She spent most of the journey letting herself fall once more into the tales of the ring and Middle Earth and letting the bland hay fields and over cast sky fade into the background.

"I've missed you champ." Dean said.

Charlie loosened her grip and pulled back so as to look at his face. It never really hit her just _how_ much she missed him until he was right there in front of her.

"Are you getting sappy on me, Winchester?" She teased.

"No- no of course not. Place just isn't the same without you." He released his hold on her waist and knocked her head playfully with his hand.

"I know." She grinned, closing her eyes and lifting her head."I don't know how you cope without me."

"We don't most of the time." Dean laughed.

"Ha. Don't be so hard on yourself." She joked back, punching him lightly on the shoulder and walking around him towards the door of the bunker. She stopped short just as she reached the door handle, "you got company?" Charlie asked, nodding her head towards the deep red car parked a little further down the road.

"Come on, let's go inside." Dean replied, opening the door.

Charlie shrugged it off and stepped inside, taking a moment to admire the pure awesomeness of the Winchester's home.

"What's up bitches?" Charlie called as she wandered down the stairs and rounded the corner into the library, dumping her bag onto the table. "D'ya miss me?"

"Charlie!" Sam exclaimed, jumping up from his chair and walking across the space to scoop her up in a tight hug. "It's so good to see you."

"You too Sam, can't- breathe." She managed between breathes.

"Sorry, um-" Sam said, releasing his hold on her and taking a step back.

From the other side of the room, someone cleared their throat, a woman. Charlie's gaze shot up.

"Charlie Bradbury," Dean started, gesturing to the two blonde women with a huge smile on his face. "This is Ellen Harvelle and her daughter-"

"Jo." Charlie interrupted, her mouth falling open and complexion quickly paling.

"Yeah, Jo." Dean finished, brow furrowed. He looked between Jo, Ellen and Sam, who looked just as confused as he felt, before looking back to Charlie, who was flickering between avoiding everyone's gaze and sneaking in glances at Jo, a bright blush working it's way to the tips of her ears.

"It's- nice to meet you, Charlie." Jo smiled from her place, tilting her glass towards her as if in a wave.

Dean couldn't be 100% sure, but he was sure Charlie actually squeaked then.

"Hi- hey- yeah, it's awesome to meet you too. Totally bitchin'." Charlie muttered, not quite meeting her eyes. "Um- so Dean, where am I putting my shit?" She asked, turning to him.

Dean stared at her with narrowed eyes for a moment longer before his face cracked into a warm smile and he replied, "you know you've got your own room here."

"Great, well I'm just going to go and- powder my nose and I'll see you in a sec, 'kay?" She said, grabbing her bag and practically running towards the hallway before she'd even finished her sentence leaving a room or very bewildered people behind.

+

Charlie hadn't been hiding in her room, per se, she was above hiding. Hiding was for seven year olds who were frightened after watching Monsters Inc. too late at night and people caught by their bosses watching porn at work.

It was just that she'd just been unpacking really, really slowly and refusing to move further than three feet from the bed.

Okay she was totally hiding.

But with good reason. She was beyond embarrassed at her earlier slip up in front of the girl she'd been crazy crushing on for the better part of a year and her mother on the first encounter. A girl who for all intents and purposes was completely fictional - despite the fact that she knew she wasn't really fictional as she was well aware what the books were - but it wasn't like there was any conceivable reality where Charlie thought she'd be confronted by the real, living, breathing Jo Harvelle.

Who was in the most cliché way as possible, totally, utterly and completely the most stunning woman Charlie had ever seen - and that was counting the love of her life, Arwen. More than anything Charlie was gutted she'd spent all those countless hours reading and daydreaming and imagining her the way she had and wondering why, when the real version was leaps and bounds out of imaginary Jo's league she'd even bothered at all.

Charlie butted her head softly against the wall as she painfully relived the moment over and over again in her head. The irony of it all was that she had spent inordinate amounts of time conjuring up crazy scenarios of meeting Jo - including but not limited to - Jo ending up working in the opposite cubicle to Charlie at some mundane office job, Charlie stumbling into a bar in a new town and being served by a gorgeous, sassy blonde bartender who slipped her number alongside a free drink, Jo swooping in and saving Charlie from a nest of vampires (not that Charlie needed saving at all, but who could resist being saved by someone as heroically inspirational as Joanna Beth Harvelle) to even running into her at the grocery store by accident and hitting it off.

None of these _involved_ admitting that she'd read "No Exit" so many times that she knew it backwards or that the spine of her copy of "Born Under a Bad Sign" had become so damaged from constant use that she'd had to buy a whole new book or that her copy of "Abandon All Hope" was so tear stained that the ink was starting to blur together before even saying hello.

But at some point she'd have to return to a room full of expectant people eager to hear her explanation that she wasn't too keen on giving. She led back on the bed dramatically, running her hands through her hair.

"Way to go, Bradbury." She muttered to herself, turning over.

Maybe she was dreaming. Maybe it was a djinn induced fantasy. Although, she hadn't been on a hunt in over a month because she'd been taking on so many extra shifts at the office. Dull. Though what are the chances she'd know that she was dreaming, anyway?

+

She'd just about resigned to spending the rest of the her time with the Winchester's alone in her room only coming out when in desperate need of food when she heard a soft knock on the open door frame.

"Hey." Charlie sat up and spun around so fast she nearly toppled over.

_Shit, fuck. How long has she been stood there?_ "Hi." She said with wide eyes.

"The boys are fixing some dinner so I thought I'd come and introduce myself properly, see how you were settling in." Jo said, leaning against the doorway and folding her arms.

"Well that's very sweet of you." She said, adjusting the tiny Hermione figurine she'd placed by the lamp on the bedside table and using her other hand to reassure herself that her heart wasn't about to fall out of her chest.

"Can I-?" Jo gestured towards the inside of the room.

"Oh sure, yea, of course just let me move those." She said, grabbing a couple of books and setting them on the floor to make more room.

Jo smiled. "Need any help?" She asked, unfolding her arms and taking a seat on the bed by Charlie.

"Um, no, not so much. I pack lightly." She said gesturing to the small pile of clothes dominated by coloured jeans and plaid flannels resting by the pillow.

Charlie wasn't known for having a way with words, but not being able to string together a single sentence wasn't something she could ever recall happening to her. At least not sober. Perhaps this was a dream, after all.

"So much plaid." She pointed out running her hand through the number of flannel shirts. "Wow, you're a true Winchester." Jo chuckled.

"You think?"

"They talk about you like your family, you should hear them." She said, her tone a little more serious.

Charlie beamed. "Oh I don't know about that. Isn't it just the two of them against the world?" She asked, mocking the deep tones of their voices.

"Maybe, they're something special. I mean, they take family real seriously but-"

"Their family is bigger than they realise." Charlie finished.

"Yeah, exactly." Jo nodded, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear. "Just as long as you don't try and interfere with 'brother bonding moments'." Charlie dead-panned.

"Oh yeah, don't even think about it." She nodded furiously back.

Charlie's expression split into another grin, followed a moment later by a matching one from Jo.

"So get this." Charlie started, pulling a book from her bag and flicking her hair back à la Sam.

"What is it Sammy?" Jo replied, gasping dramatically and grabbing the book from her hands.

"Oh the voice was spot on there." Charlie laughed.

"Really? I didn't think it was gruff enough." Jo joked.

"Nah, it's perfect. I'm still not totally convinced they're putting it on."

"Probably to make Castiel feel a little better."

Charlie laughed at the image. "What's he like?"

"Who? Castiel?"

Charlie nodded.

"Odd. Just- really odd, but adorable. Despite being an all powerful celestial being and all."

Charlie smiled fondly. "They're lucky to have someone like Castiel."

She often thought if the circumstances were different, she would have totally fallen head over heels for Castiel and he's helpful and dreamy persona. Who could resist an angel, right? He was written with so much intrigue that he was fascinating to read about on every page and he'd been through so much character development in his first two years alone that she couldn't fathom where he was at now. She could only piece together how far he'd come from snippets she'd learnt from Dean and sometimes Sam.

"I'm sure Dean wishes he was around more." Jo agreed.

"Why isn't he?"

Jo shrugged and adjusted her position to sit against the wall, picking up one of Charlie's books and flipping through the pages absent-mindedly.

"Dunno, lots to do back home I guess."

"Oh come on, anyone who knows anything about that angel knows where his real home is." Charlie said.

Jo looked up, studying Charlie thoughtfully before nodding slowly. "It makes me feel so small." Jo admitted quietly, moving to lie down on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

"What, knowing there really is a heaven up there?" Charlie asked, looking back down on her.

"Yeah." She huffed out a laugh. "I can't explain it. It just sort of makes my life feel meaningless, you know?"

Charlie bit her lip before deciding to lie next to Jo. She paused. "Your life is so far from meaningless, Jo. You're out there, saving people, hunting things. Not a lot of people can say they've devoted their lives to that."

Jo turned her head to look at Charlie. "That's a great catch phrase. We should get that on a bumper sticker."

Charlie breath caught at the sudden proximity and she thought that not even the most eloquently written poetry could accurately describe how beautiful Jo looked when she smiled.

"Totally." Charlie laughed.

Jo broke the short silence. "Some days I can hardly believe that there is some kind of divine force controlling everything up there."

"You do know the angels are dicks right? And they don't control anything, heavens a total mess. I'm pretty sure hell's in better shape."

"Man, did you ever imagine your life would become this fucked up?" She asked, turning to trace patterns on the ceiling again.

"More fucked up than finding out your manager of your boring mundane office job isn't really your manager because in fact he ate him and assumed his form as part of a plan for his boss turning Earth into a human meat factory?" She paused again. "No, no I did not."

Jo turned to her again, looking at her widened eyes before cracking into a grin. "That's a pretty spectacular way to be introduced to the supernatural world."

"Tell me about it. Don't even get me started on angels and demons and tablets and trails and sigils and spells."

"Dean showed me the app you made. I'd say you're handling it more than well. You're a natural."

"It was probably a bit much." She said sheepishly, making a mental note to send Dean the updated version that she'd worked on for three days straight that time she got the week off.

"Nah, I love it."

"Really?"

"Duh."

Charlie blushed. Who knew well designed monster hunting apps were the way to a girl's heart?

"That first time? After Dick Roman? I tried to get out, you know. Packed up, moved to Michigan, gave myself a new name, new job, new life, forgot about Dean and Sam and leviathans. It was all going so well, like, really well, until they found me, again. Or rather, the monsters found me. And you know, once is an accident, twice is a trend and all that." She paused. "I'd be letting myself down if I didn't nut up and kick it in the ass. I can't let people die on my watch when I know how to help."

"That's the attitude." Jo smiled, nudging Charlie's cheek. "There's too much in this world to be miserable about, most of it hiding in the walls of the house of the unsuspecting American population. And don't be so hard on yourself."

"Yes ma'am." Charlie tried to keep her expression as serious as possible.

Jo laughed loudly and rubbed a hand across her face to pull the hair out of the way again. Charlie watched her with an expression that could only be described as dreamy. _Reign it in, Charlie._

Jo looked back over but her eyes were drawn to the bedside table.

"Dragon Age? No freakin' way." Jo exclaimed, leaning across Charlie to pick up the game which lay on top of a pile of other games and DVDs by the bed.

"You play Dragon Age?"

"Duh." Jo replied.

"You're totally a Elf, aren't you?" Charlie's face was coloured impressed.

"It's the only way to play."

"Rogue?" Jo added.

"Definitely."

"I'm glad we're on the same wavelength here."

"I couldn't agree more." Jo bit her lip.

Charlie couldn't be sure but she thought she saw Jo's eyes flick to her lips for the briefest second. Probably wishful thinking. "I didn't really peg you as a gamer." She added.

"I wasn't, really. I was an unmatched expert on the pinball machine, but never computers. My friend, Ash, he was. He got me hooked on all sorts." Her smile was bitter-sweet.

"I'm sorry." Charlie said.

"What do you mean?" Jo asked, swallowing hard.

"You miss him a lot." It wasn't a question.

Jo nodded softly. "He was basically my brother in every way. We grew up together." She kept her eyes fixed towards the game. "But- that was a long long time ago."

"Doesn't make it hurt any less." Charlie added quietly.

"No." Jo looked up, smiling when she met Charlie's eyes. "No, it doesn't. But I won't dwell. Plus, he's probably up there drinking himself into the afterlife." She almost laughed.

Charlie smiled. "He is." She wondered if Sam and Dean had ever told her about seeing Ash in heaven.

Jo looked towards her curiously again, her brows meeting as if she couldn't quite work her out. Charlie couldn't believe that she seemed to want to. It was one thing being the Queen of Moons and having every elf and even fairy glancing your way because yeah, Charlie was a catch, but, Jo Harvelle? The brave, relentless, heroic Jo Harvelle? Nah.

"So, what are you doing in these parts?" Jo asked.

"In Kansas?" Jo nodded.

"Just visiting. I like to come by as often as I can, you know? I'm pretty sure I'm overstaying my welcome at this point." Charlie laughed nervously.

"Nah don't be ridiculous, have you seen the size of this place? You could probably stay a month and they wouldn't even realise you were here." She paused. "As long as you don't touch the pie."

Charlie raised both hands as if in surrender. "I've done some stupid shit in my time, but even I ain't that dumb."

"I could really go for some pie right now."

"Fingers crossed for dessert, Dean is cooking, right?"

"Yeah and he's taking his sweet ass time with it." Jo rolled her eyes, glaring towards the door.

"So, what about you then? What're you doing here?" Charlie asked.

"Me and Mom just finished working a case just north of Wichita and thought we'd stop by on the way home."

Charlie shifted her position. "Anything interesting?"

"Just a couple o' vengeful spirits, you know, standard drill."

"Do you ever get scared?" Charlie asked quietly.

When Charlie read "No Exit" for the first time, she was sure she was more terrified than Jo was when she waited in that creepy ass basement as bait, which, by the way, dick move Winchester. But by the time she was back in "Good God, Y'all" she was a stronger, more confident and well rounded woman. Charlie was trying not to swoon right there and then.

"No, not so much any more," Jo answered, her eyes deep in thought. She sat up halfway, leaning against the pillow. She paused. "At first I was, I mean, I'd never admit it out of some stupid sense of pride, I was a dumb kid and Dean was right, I had a choice. But I think a lot of it was about trying to prove to my mom that I'm stronger than she realises."

"I think she's always known that." Charlie added, Jo's eyes shot towards her. "What she does is out of a blind unconditional love, and yeah maybe it's too controlling and maybe it's selfish, but I'd take that any day over indifference." She paused. "And I think she she's just as stubborn as you are."

Jo smiled at that, looking down at her. "Oh yeah, and how would you know?"

Charlie's smile faltered and she started to panic. "I- uh, you know? I'm- I've-"

"Calm down Charlie," Jo laughed, "this isn't an interrogation." She added, knocking Charlie softly on the arm.

"Oh right, yeah. Of course." Charlie muttered, her laugh a little forced.

Jo smiled wider before schooling her features. She wrapped her arms around her knees. "But- thanks, thank you. I know she was doing what was best, I was just some dumb kid, trying to live up to my father's legacy, make him proud. I think it made us stronger in the end." She smiled sadly.

Charlie sat up and reached out to place her hand on Jo's back softly and Jo leaned into the touch just slightly. Definitely a dream. "You have made him proud. The Winchesters may get all the credit," she pulled back to look at Jo, "but I'm pretty sure you helped a lot in stopping the whole, you know, apocalypse. You're so much more than a freak with a knife collection." She said, gesturing wildly with her hands.

"You're pretty savvy on the Winchester's history." Jo noted, quirking an eyebrow and a smile pulling at one side of her mouth.

Charlie pulled back her hand. "I know a fair share." She aimed for casual. Inside she was bordering on a panic attack.

"You talk like you've known me for years."

Charlie bit her lip harder and shrugged. "They talk about you. A lot."

"Do they?" She challenged, quirking an eyebrow.

"All the time." She smiled innocently.

"Is that because you're asking or they're telling?"

_Damn this girl is smart._ "What are you implying here?"

"Oh, nothing." Jo said, tugging her hair behind her ear and looking elsewhere around the room.

Charlie narrowed her gaze but dropped it.

Jo didn't.

"Okay, not nothing. I'm curious, what is it? Are you a psychic? A mind reader? Are you from the future?" Jo joked.

"What? Are you crazy? No. I'm just a mildly gifted computer hacker who drinks a lot of coffee."

"And that's how you know stuff? Hacking?"

"No. No, not really. I just went to the nearest book store." Shut up, Charlie. "You've lost me." Jo said. If you walk out now, you can save yourself a lifetime of embarrassment. Charlie blushed hard again and Jo found herself biting her lip to stop from grinning and failing at the look of embarrassed horror on her face.

"C'mon. You literally quoted me to me."

"I did not." Charlie blanched.

"Did too. When you said that line about freaks and knife collections. I said that, to my Mom. Years ago."

Charlie's mouth opened but no sound came out.

"Yeah- I- um, well it's not like- you personally, well, it's hard to explain." She still couldn't look Jo in the eye. Jo was staring at her lap, anyway.

"I'd totally forgotten about it. It was one of the first in a long line of fights about hunting. I was such a dumb kid."

Charlie made a sound somewhere between forced laughter and a squeak.

Jo grinned. "Go ahead." She gestured.

Charlie's hand clasped tightly around a pendant she wore on her neck as she bit down the urge to start pacing. "Couldn't you have asked Dean?"

She shook her head. "Dean told me to ask you."

"I bet he did." She muttered under her breath, clenching her jaw and narrowing her eyes as if plotting revenge.

"So..." Jo prompted.

"So what?"

"Go on." Jo seemed to be thoroughly enjoying this.

"It's complicated."

"Try me." If she wasn't positioned so awkwardly, Charlie was certain her hand would be on her hip.

Charlie sighed. Jo just wouldn't quit.

"I may have found a quirky and slightly controversial way of catching up on all thing's Supernatural." _Don't do this._

"Which is?"

Charlie exhaled loudly through her nose.

"There are these books?" _Stop it now._

"Books?" Jo interrupted, her brows creased. Charlie shot her a look. "Sorry." Jo muttered, gesturing for her to continue.

"So there are these books, written by a prophet, Chuck-" _You can still save yourself._

"Chuck?" A look. "Sorry." "Chuck. He had these visions, visions of Sam and Dean and he used them to write books." _Okay, you're fucked._

"And Sam and Dean were okay with this?" "Hell no." Charlie laughed loudly, thinking back to Dean's vow to find every single copy of those books and burn them. She didn't think there were enough matches in the world. "Far from it. But they didn't know for years."

"And- I'm in these books?"

Charlie blushed to the tips of her ears. "Yeah, a few times." She looked down.

Jo leant back on the bed, mouth half open in awe. "This is so meta. I can't believe I never knew."

Charlie smiled. "Believe me, you'd never get this out of Sam and Dean, they'd probably rather die than tell a single soul of The Winchester Gospels."

"The Winchester _Gospels_?" Charlie just nodded.

"Was Chuck that much of an egotistical asshole?" Jo laughed.

"No, no he thought everything he wrote was shit, which is sad, because I love it." She blushed again. Jo didn't say anything. "Apparently that's just what the angels call them."

"That's insane."

Charlie nodded in agreement. She bit her lip. "It doesn't weird you out or anything?"

Jo's brow furrowed. "Why would it?"

Another point for the dream column.

"Because I- I know all this stuff about you that you didn't even tell me."

"Well, there's still a lot you don't know about me." Jo shrugged with one shoulder.

Charlie's mouth fell open a hint. "Is that an invitation Miss Harvelle?"

Jo smirked. "I don't know, do you want it to be?"

_Was that supposed to be a flirtation?_ Charlie blushed to a pretty shade of red when she realised how close she'd gravitated towards Jo. "Perhaps." She almost whispered.

"Good." Jo breathed.

"Food's on the table." Dean called from somewhere down the hall.

Both Charlie and Jo's faces shot towards the doorway. Charlie leaned back a little, sitting a little straighter. She didn't know yet if she was completely pissed or thrilled for the interruption.

"Well it took him long enough." Charlie laughed, standing up and straightening out the fabric of her shirt. "Care to join me?" She asked, offering her hand to Jo.

Jo looked from her hand to Charlie's eyes before taking it and letting herself be pulled to her feet a little too strongly and directly into Charlie's arms. Charlie automatically placed her other hand lightly on Jo's waist to steady her and Charlie tried desperately to focus on regulating her breathing and not on how soft and warm Jo's hands were.

Which was, very soft. Ridiculously soft. And so pleasantly warm. And her hair smelt of apples. That wasn't in the books.

Jo opened and closed her mouth several times but didn't say anything. Neither of them had let go and Charlie had minutely tightened her grip on Jo's waist.

"Food's getting cold, ladies." Came a voice from the doorway.

"We're on our way." Jo answered, looking over her shoulder.

"Well, hurry up, Sam won't let me start without you and I'm fucking starving."

Charlie rolled her eyes where he couldn't see her and Jo started laughing. Dean's brow furrowed at Jo but she shrugged and waved him off and Dean returned to the library. Jo bit her bottom lip again and Charlie didn't think she'd ever seen something so fascinating.

"It's cruel to keep him waiting, c'mon." Jo smiled, not sounding one bit like she thought it was cruel. She brought up her other hand and nudging Charlie on the shoulder.

"I guess you're right."

Jo nodded firmly. "I'm always right."

Charlie beamed back at her, Jo thought she liked the way her eyes sparkled when she smiled. She walked around Charlie and began walking down the hallway towards the library, still clasping Charlie's hands by the fingertips.

 


End file.
